


Crossroads

by hhertzof



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Rirhath B | The Crossings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 12:29:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8890756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: A crossover at the Crossings. Or maybe not. It's canonically the same universe, after all.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [teacup_of_doom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teacup_of_doom/gifts).



It was odd being back with Sarah Jane and the others. Everything that had happened to Maria since she'd moved to the States might have seemed almost like a dream. Might have, except for noticing things that she'd never noticed before. Like the way Sarah Jane codeswitched between English and the Speech.

Sarah Jane wasn't a wizard. Maria would have known, wouldn't she? She'd checked the directory in her manual the moment she had a moment alone, and Sarah Jane didn't even have an entry.

And yet, once they'd convinced the Har'etech that they were of more use as allies than as hostages, Sarah Jane had looked straight at her and said, "Aly speaks highly of you." She had to be referring to Aly Henshaw, Maria's supervisory. Maria could picture them having lemonade in Sarah Jane's back garden. They probably got on like a house on fire. Still, Sarah Jane had never come out and said she knew Maria was a wizard. Perhaps Sarah Jane had no idea there were wizards, though that seemed unlikely given her travels with the Doctor. Perhaps Sarah Jane was just unaware that she wasn't speaking English or whatever language the Har'etech spoke.

Maria was almost certain the other three didn't know. She wasn't sure why she hadn't told them. Except that this was hers. She'd received her manual less than a week after they'd moved to DC, when she'd been feeling horribly homesick for Bannerman Road, and suddenly she'd opened up a world beyond what she and Clyde and Luke had ever seen before. She might tell them before they went home, she thought; she might even tell Sarah Jane and Rani, if she could find the right time. But so far she'd been able to keep her wizardry under wraps and let Sarah Jane deal with their abduction. And right now Sarah Jane was in a deep and heated discussion with the captain of the ship about how they were going to get home, now that the Chian had been defeated and the navigation system had been fixed.

The rest of them had listened for a little while, then started to wander off, having lost interest in the discussion of relative distances, trade routes, politics, gossip, and likelihood of finding a lift home. Clyde and Rani had moved away a bit to have a whispered conversation off and Luke just stared out the viewscreen at the stars, seemingly oblivious to the other conversations and to Maria's own reverie.

"How does she know all of this stuff?" Clyde asked suddenly. "Star systems and relative distances and all of that. I thought she'd been stuck on Earth for years."

Luke smiled slightly. "I don't think Mum's been completely honest about that. She's got enough friends out there - out here, that she could probably call in a favour if she needed a lift off planet for whatever reason. But I think-" He broke off as Sarah Jane turned towards them, looking thoughtful. "Did you figure something out, Mum?"

"We're going to have to go through Crossroads. It's the only way to get back to Earth that will take less than a month." Sarah Jane shrugged. "Sorry, if I seem ambivalent, it's just that it's a little too convenient for my tastes. If I'm being pushed through Crossroads, it's because someone wants me there. They could have just called," she ended on a frustrated note.

Maria was oddly reassured by that. She'd realized a long time ago that their Bannerman Road adventures were only a fraction of the crises Sarah Jane handled on a regular basis. People (and aliens) were always coming to Sarah Jane for help and she usually managed to solve their problems. And if Sarah Jane knew about Crossroads, she must know about wizards too, so maybe telling the others she was one, wouldn't be so hard after all.

* * *

Maria picked herself up off the floor and noticed that the others were all doing the same, with the exception of Sarah Jane, who was already moving to a console by the side of the room. The gating from the ship had been unusually bumpy. 

Sarah Jane didn't look happy. "Are you all okay?" she asked as she tapped out an incredibly complex pattern on the screen. "The transfer shouldn't have been nearly that rough. Something is going on here." Her eyes focused on the readout and she didn't elaborate. Maria couldn't make sense of what she was seeing on the screen, beyond a few words - it was very technical and she didn't know that much about worldgates. 

"I haven't seen anything like that before," Luke said.

He wouldn't have, Maria thought. But it was a relief to know she wasn't the only one who was at sea.

"It's a diagnostic for the gating system," Sarah Jane said absently. "You won't have read the manual- yet." There was an odd pause between the last two words, but Sarah Jane often said things like that. Maria privately thought she'd picked it up from the Doctor.

But manual had a special meaning to a wizard, and Sarah Jane sounded like she expected Luke to acquire one. It was entirely possible that he wasn't out of latency yet. He'd only been created by the Bane a few years ago. Maria found herself reconsidering how much Sarah Jane knew about wizards.

"Alright, there's nothing I can do without learning more about the situation. I need to talk to the Stationmaster." Sarah Jane set off at a brisk pace leaving the rest of them to follow in her wake.

* * *

Maria did her best to mimic the looks of wonder that the other three wore as they headed into the main concourse. She wasn't sure how she was going to explain, but if Maria was needed here, and not Sarah Jane, she was sure an answer would present itself.

Instead of leading them directly to the Stationmaster's office, Sarah Jane paused at one of the food kiosks. She looked around, frowning - her mood hadn't improved since they'd left the ship - before saying, "This will do." She pointed her sonic lipstick at the counter, and said, "Put whatever these three order on my tab, she," indicating Maria in a vague fashion, "can cover her own."

Maria winced.

"Oh, don't be like that. It was one thing on the Har'etech ship, but you didn't think you'd get out of Crossroads with that little secret of yours intact, did you? You weren't even doing a credible impression of never having been here before. You can explain over lunch, while I find Sker'ret and check in with the Shadow Proclamation to get these two," Clyde and Rani, "a pass for breaking their grounding by the Judoon." Sarah Jane was definitely upset about the whole situation, if she was snapping at Maria like that.

Luke stared at her thoughtfully. "Mum, it might be better if you explained exactly what you think is wrong here. You were upset even before the gate had issues."

Sarah Jane's eyes fixed on her son. "Aside from the fact that we've gone from a place with no Judoon to a place where there are almost certainly Judoon, I have _never_ been routed through Crossroads unless certain _beings_ want me here because there's something only I can fix going on." She paused, then added, "I suppose in this case, they may want Maria instead, but they wouldn't have had to go through all this rigamarole to get her. I wouldn't order the chocolate here, it's a controlled monopoly and horribly overpriced, but anything on that menu should be fine for your metabolism."

"Oi," a voice came from behind them. "Are you disparaging my attempts at capitalism?"

Sarah Jane laughed suddenly and swung around, "Mela! Good to see you. Maria, I don't know if you've met Carmela Rodriguez?"

Maria shook her head. "No, but I've met her brother." Who had ranted quite memorably about Carmela at one point. "Dari!" she added, as she noticed the girl beside Carmela. "Are you up here on errantry?" There seemed no point in controlling her tongue now. She could explain to the others later.

"No, shopping," Dari smirked. Why wouldn't she? Carmela's shopping talents were as legendary as some of her other pursuits.

Introductions were quickly made.

"Wait, you're Sarah Jane Smith? Originator of the Blinovitch Paradox Causation and Reconfiguration Link? Can I get your autograph? I think I met a friend of yours once when I was on ordeal. Blond, beige suit. He helped me out of a tight situation."

This was so unlike the Dairine Maria knew that she stared.

Carmela muttered to Maria, "What's got into Dari? I've never seen her act so starstruck, not even with Irina."

"I haven't a clue," Maria answered. "I always thought Sarah Jane was special, but I checked and she isn't listed in the wizards' directory."

The other girl looked a little surprised at that. "Tom introduced us when I started developing the Stenographer's gift. Sarah Jane has it too. But she doesn't act like a wizard."

"A what?" Clyde asked. And just like that, Maria found herself explaining to Clyde, Rani, and Luke about wizardry, and her own ordeal. They were so involved in the discussion that when Sarah Jane finally tore herself away from the group with a warning to stay put. Or if they didn't stay put to call or ping her. It somehow didn't surprise Maria to learn that Sarah Jane had access to the manual's messaging system.

Dari, when queried, could only tell them that she'd originated or refined several complex spells, but beyond that she didn't know any more than they did. She'd just assumed that Sarah Jane was a wizard.

This caused Maria to pull out her manual again, and turn to the directory, which she then showed to the rest of the group. This time, Sarah Jane had an entry. Sarah Jane Smith, Stenographer, Nelesh ha Cadrei, On Errantry. 

The two wizards looked at each other, before Maria admitted, "I've never seen that phrase before."

"Neither have I." Dairine stared at it as though it might suddenly change and reveal _something_ , then she glanced at Carmela.

"Right, when all else fails, look to the stenographer at the table," Carmela said, before shrugging, "I'm getting several meanings but I don't understand any of them." She might have said more but she was interrupted.

"Don't take these off. They're temporary negations of your Judoon imposed grounding." Sarah Jane slapped a bracelet on Clyde's wrist, then Rani's. "And behave. I'm acting as your temporary custodian."

"Don't we always?" Clyde asked cheekily.

"Wait," Rani said, "If you could do this before, why didn't you?"

"Because," Sarah Jane replied, "special circumstances. And that's all you're going to get out of me on that topic." She turned to Maria. "And as for _that_ title, the best answer you're going to get from me is that sometimes the best answer to a question is 'No'. Beyond that, it's all need to know, and if you needed to know, you'd have the answer in your manual. Compared to the Powers, UNIT is positively chatty about me. Hey, Tom."

Tom Swale hugged her. "How's my favorite journalist?"

"Irritated. I'm not getting a straight answer about what I'm needed here for, except that you've already got a stenographer, and something's off with the gates. Maybe I should have just ignored it and headed for the Union Station gate."

"When have you ever ignored a problem, Sarah Jane?" Tom asked. "And yes, there's some instability with the worldgates. Sker'ret called Rhiow and me in for a consult. We've been at it for hours and still haven't tracked down the issue. Neither the spell, nor any of the variables have changed. I just came out on a coffee run."

"Maybe Spot and I should have a look," Dairine offered.

"Maybe. It can't be a coincidence running into you here." He looked at the rest of the group. "You might as well all tag along. Maybe one of you will spot what the experts have missed."

* * *

The spell diagram was more complex than any Maria had dealt with before, even during the War. To her bemusement, Rani was more thrown by the cat wizard than the Rirhait Stationmaster, Clyde immediately decided that Sker'ret was his new best friend, and Luke was fascinated by the diagram, moving this way and that to study its complex structure, making her wonder once again if Sarah Jane had been implying that Luke would end up a wizard too.

Carmela looked over the spell for a few minutes, before shrugging her shoulders, sitting herself on a nearby ledge, and pulling out her tablet with a vague comment about getting out of the way and letting the wizards work.

After a minute, Maria backed away and watched Sarah Jane instead. This time she was using the sonic lipstick like a wand, manipulating the diagram this way and that, occasionally asking Sker'ret a complicated technical question in the Speech, and once or twice Rhiow or Tom. When Spot had finished his diagnostic, she went over the readouts with the same keen eye. Finally she rubbed her temples and muttered something about not being paid enough to do proofreading on this scale. 

"You don't see anything either?" Tom asked.

Sarah Jane smiled grimly. "Tom, when I don't see anything-" she paused, closing her eyes for a second, then abruptly used the sonic lipstick to manipulate the spell diagram. "There."

"Where? Dairane asked. "Nothing has changed there." she added bewilderdly. "That's the most stable part of the world gate spell. The universe couldn't have changed without us noticing."

Sarah Jane nodded. "You're right. Nothing's changed. But something should." she stopped short, then looked at Tom. "It's describing the Universe as it is, and it's blocking a change that might occur if it had an opening. Language is power and describing it in a spell this powerful firms up reality, sometimes in ways it shouldn't."

Maria stared at her. "I don't understand."

"Yes, you do." Tom said, "Dairine too. It's one of the first things you're taught when you put your names into a spell. Errors in your name can change who you are. But this is a very rare situation. I've only seen it once before. " He glanced at Sarah Jane. "The important question is can you fix it?"

Sarah Jane pinched the part of the spell she was looking at and pulled it apart to magnify it. "I need to figure out what is trying to happen. And then whether it is the right path. Give me a few minutes." She tucked the sonic lipstick into a pocket and traced a few of the figures with her finger. "And then there's the fun of convincing the Universe that a lie is the truth. Don't try this at home, kids." A pause then, "I may pass out afterwards. I don't have a wizard's power level."

Sker'ret moved away to give her space to work, but watched with avid curiosity. "This is a rare sight. One might get to see one of the Nelesh ha Cadrei work once in a lifetime, if one is lucky."

Maria started to ask, but Carmela beat her to it, "Thrice-refused? Refused what?"

Tom laughed, "The oath." Obvious in retrospect. "Most people who refuse it walk away, and forget it ever existed. A few refuse the power and the binding, but walk into the fire anyway. It's very rare. It leaves one in an odd relationship with the Powers."

Behind him Sarah Jane made a strangled sound. "Obvious indeed." It took the others a few moments to realize she wasn't talking about being thrice-refused. "How did I not realize we were so close?" 

She gently twisted apart a section, paused to take a deep breath, then pulled her lipstick out of her pocket. 'There's always a choice involved. Allowing the change to happen or removing the potential of that change ever happening. The latter is the easy path, minimal energy, speaking the truth to the Universe and thereby making it so. The former is tricky, the power needed dependent on the words you choose and the lie you want to become truth. And wizards can't lie without repercussions." She started using the lipstick to draw the graceful characters of the speech which lay there, red against the glow of the rest of the diagram. "But I've been assigned this project for a very long time, so it's not really a choice at all."

Maria watched as she wrote, as the other wizards were watching. Galactic coordinates ten-zero-eleven-zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero centre. Sarah Jane was writing a planet back in the sky.

"Gallifrey, but that's just a legend. A tale told to kittens," Rhiow said. There was awe in his voice.

"It was destroyed during a war that has also passed into legend," Sarah Jane said as she finished the last character that described the lost planet. "And now something has happened to make it a possibility again. It's not there yet, but the path has been laid if the right choice is made. A possibility, if you will." She stood a little shakily and Luke moved to steady her. "That didn't take as much power as I expected. The most precise changes never do. But I think I need to sit for a little while."

"The bands are good for 8 hours," Sker'ret said helpfully, "And if there's anything else you need."

Sarah Jane laughed, a little tiredly. "I could murder a cup of tea. I think I'll find a kiosk and sit and let Maria give the others a tour of the shopping area. No bringing home anything I need to explain to your parents." She gave Rani and Clyde a look.

"Come with us," Dairine and Carmela said at the same time. "Mela knows all the best shops," Dairine added.

Maria grinned. Carmela's reputation as personal shopper was well known throughout the wizard community and her friends were about to get the tour of their life.


End file.
